The regular meeting of the Utah Transportation Commission, held in the St. George City Council Chambers, 1715 East 200 North, St. George, Utah, was called to order at 9:04 a.m. by Commission Chairman Glen E. Brown. He introduced the Commission members and welcomed those attending. Commissioner Clyde was excused from the meeting.

Approval of MinutesCommissioner Warnick moved to approve the minutes of the February 21, 2003, Commission meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was seconded by Commissioner Bodily and approved.

Local Area Presentation by Region FourChairman Brown turned the time over to Commissioner Lewis for the local area presentation and public comments portion of the meeting. Local officials were introduced, then Region Four gave their Local Area presentation. Robert Dowell talked about projects taking place in the St. George area, including the Hurricane Arch Bridge, the widening of SR-56 out of Cedar City, the project on SR-20 from US-89 to I-15, and the Milepost (MP) 10 interchange reconstruction. Mr. Dowell said pending requests include three I-15 rehabilitation projects from MP 0-10, 10-19, and 34-42, which should be programmed within the next couple of years. Capacity enhancement projects include the Southern Corridor MP 2 Atkinville Interchange, the St. George Boulevard reconstruction project, signals at SR-9 at Telegraph Road and 700 West at Telegraph Road, improvements to the Bluff Street Diagonal intersection, rehabilitation of the Santa Clara Bridge on SR-18, and a Highland Drive project in St. George City.

Mike Miles provided an update on SR-6. He said the safety study has been completed, and areas of concern to be improved have been identified. The anticipated date for completion of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is July of 2004, which is an accelerated schedule of 18 months. There are four safety improvement projects being designed, and the goal is to have a four lane section from MP 195 to MP 222 by 2008. Rumble strips are also being added to the center line on US-6. Scott Munson provided information on local area preservation projects, overlay and seal coat projects, and chip seal projects.

Lowell Elmer from the Dixie MPO updated the Commission on the activities of the new MPO in St. George. He also provided information on their three committees, funding anticipations, and MPO issues. Larry Bulloch from St. George City, discussed the Dixie Beltway. He said there are three corridors: the Southern Corridor, the Northern Corridor, and the Western Corridor. With the airport litigation on the Southern Corridor and the environmental process being extended, the Northern Corridor now has top priority. The first phase needs to be constructed before the St. George Boulevard reconstruction project starts to help alleviate traffic congestion. Commissioner Lewis turned the time back to Chairman Brown for the remainder of the meeting.

Milford Railroad CrossingDal Hawks stated that this railroad crossing has been an issue for a long time, but has progressed over the last few years. The region has done some preliminary design to find out what options are available. One option, and which seems to be the preferred option, is to create a railroad overpass south of the current crossing. Estimates say it would be a $2 million to $3 million project. The project would be a benefit to everyone involved. The ground is undeveloped, and is mostly owned by the railroad. Hazard Elimination Funds for 2004-2005, would be considered as a funding source. There wouldnít be enough for the total project, but it would be a start. UDOT has been developing partnerships with the city, the county and the railroad in order to address the problem.

Bob Thieme, Milford City Council, reiterated this will be a partnership between UDOT, Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), Beaver County, and Milford City. He then invited Cameron Scott and Jim Marshall from UPRR to speak on the issue. Mr. Scott stated they operate 25 trains per day in Milford, and recent growth in Las Vegas has increased by 2000 to 3000 cars per year. They are at the point where they have run out of room in Las Vegas for rail facilities, so they are looking at Milford as a storage and transit yard, with both short and long term plans to expand the yard in Milford. Looking out to 2010, there could very well be 30-32 trains going through Milford, with two to four more tracks than there is now. Mr. Marshall said this project would not only benefit the city, but the railroad as well. UPRRís participation is typically 5% on railroad crossings, but they would like to participate with an additional 5%, for a total of 10%, and also donate any right of way that would be involved.

Mr. Hawks said he is encouraged that they are getting closer to having an idea of what they can do and what would work. With the commitments between the city, the railroad and UDOT, they are about half way there in terms of the funding needed to do the project. Heís not sure where the additional funding will come from to complete the project, but at least theyíve started the steps to get there. Chairman Brown asked how soon the project could be done if the funding was available. Mr. Hawks responded that itís a simple alignment, and with a yearís lead time to do the design, they could get a project out by 2004-2005.

Public CommentsMayor Gerald Sherratt of Cedar City said they have a growing concern about their south interchange, which is an unconventional interchange. They are already experiencing problems, and those problems will only accelerate, particularly in the next three years. Cedar City is constructing a new road, starting at SR-56 and emptying into the Providence Center, the largest commercial area in Cedar City. It will help alleviate some of the traffic on Main Street. However, all of the traffic goes into the Providence Center. Then, to get on the freeway, they have to go through the non-conventional interchange. One of the problems they have is with the agricultural folks who have to trail their cattle to the mountain. A tunnel was built to take the cattle through, but itís too narrow and dark and the cattle wonít go through it. So, the police has to shut down the entrance to the Center so the cattle can be moved to the mountains. Mayor Sherratt reiterated that they are really concerned about this non-conforming interchange, and in three to four years itís going to be an absolutely impossible situation.

Steve Platt, Iron County Engineer, said they have some growing problems in their valley, not only in Cedar City, but Iron County is continuing to develop as well. They are working on the first leg of their belt route. Circle Four continues to grow and has basically exhausted the labor force in Beaver County. So, all their additional labor is coming from Cedar City and Iron County. Their residents prefer to use the Lund highway, which is an old highway. The road was actually paved once, but because of lack of use, itís gone back to gravel. However, with more and more employees, as well as recreational and agricultural use, the Lund Highway will be needed. So, they are asking, in conjunction with Circle Four helping and cooperating, for improvement of that route for those who make the trip daily. It cuts a 65 mile trip traveling on SR-130 through Minersville down to 40 miles instead. Mr. Platt said the County will be back occasionally, as the need grows.

Tony Randall, Acting City Manager for Enterprise said he was asked to come today to discuss a passing lane up the Cottonwood Canyon between Enterprise and St. George. There is an increasing volume of traffic traveling SR-18 between Enterprise and St. George, and the communities of Enterprise, Beryl, Newcastle and others as far away as Eastern Nevada, are currently served by the two lane highway. The road through Cottonwood Canyon is fairly steep and winding, and loaded trucks travel quite slowly just pulling their load up the grade. Factors to consider include the more than 5300 loaded trucks that make the round trip through the canyon, sent by three of the largest farm operators in the valley adjacent to Enterprise. Also, Washington County School District is busing students from Central to Enterprise, and is projected to include more students from Pine Valley, Veyo, etc. The economy is such in Enterprise that many residents commute to St. George for the work day. There are many amenities in St. George that are not available in Enterprise and the surrounding towns, so residents spend quite a bit of time on the road. And, their ambulance drivers have experienced difficulty passing slow trucks going up the hill, and all that slow traffic creates delays. So, they would like to formally request being placed on UDOTís priority list, and to get it on the fast track to widen that stretch of road at the canyon.

Commissioner Jim Eardley from Washington County said he wants to ditto what Mr. Randall just said. Daily travel on SR-18 is becoming more and more difficult. Washington County is growing about 6% per year. Thatís about 500 new residents a month, so they now have a county population of 110,000. Thatís good news, but it also brings a lot of problems, and much of that growth is up SR-18. So, they are asking UDOT to at least consider the passing lane project. That two lane road is over stressed, and the County has great concern about the safety of their citizens as they drive that road every day at Cottonwood Canyon.

Marilyn Hardy, LaVerkin Planning Committee, expressed her appreciation for the Hurricane Bridge going in. The only thing they need now are some school crossings Ė bridges over the road for the children. There are crossing problems in the spring and fall when school is in session, as there are cars coming all the time. The crossing guard does a wonderful job, but itís still scary. It would be nice if Hurricane and LaVerkin could each get one.

Mountainland AOG Long Range PlanDarrell Cook from the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG) reported that Monday of this week was the closing of public comment on their long range plan, which has been a long time in the making. They have been in non-conformity for 31 months. They now have conformity, and a long range plan was reviewed and approved by MAGís Regional Planning Committee last night. The TIP amendment brought all of the projects that were set aside in August of 2000 back into funded years. He is also pleased to say they will be publishing the final draft of the long range plan next week.

Planning and Programming2003 STIP Amendment #3Max Ditlevsen, Program Development Director, said there are three different items to consider today and suggested taking action on them separately because they each have their own characteristics. The first group is a request by Region Four. They are proposing to move a project that is currently on the program into CD, and replacing it with two projects in the same vicinity. This is all related to work needed on I-70, which is being funded with Interstate Maintenance money. The region felt that the Wide Hollow project could be delayed in deference to two other projects, Sigurd to Gooseberry and Clear Creek Canyon, which will help defer major rehabilitation on those particular sections.

Commissioner Wilson moved to approve the adjustments to the STIP in Region Four as explained. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lewis and approved.

Mr. Ditlevsen said the second group was referred to previously by Mr. Cook from MAG. They are the projects that have been in the Concept Development portion of the program, but had been highlighted to come into a funded year once the conformity determination had been made. The Planning Committee took action on these items and appropriated them into their TIP, and now they need to be adopted into the STIP.

Commissioner Wells moved to approve the STIP amendments proposed for Region Three. It was seconded by Commissioner Bodily and approved.

Mr. Ditlevsen remarked that when the STIP document was approved last fall, one of the comments received from FHWA was that the Department was deficient in the number of safety related projects. So the Traffic and Safety Division developed a multi year program, and at the April Workshop, the Commission will see the program for FY04 and 05, and hopefully FY06. This group of projects are FY03 projects, current year projects. The balance of the funds is in the Safety Any Area category. Mr. Ditlevsen said they were very conservative in the programming of FY03 federal money and feels there is capacity within the program to bring these projects into the current year.

Commissioner Bodily moved to approve amending the STIP with the addition of the Safety projects as outlined. It was seconded by Commissioner Lewis and approved.

Aeronautics- Revised Projects - Blanding & Heber City- New Projects - Escalante & RichfieldMonte Yeager from Aeronautics said there are four projects being brought forward today. The two revised projects are at Blanding and Heber City, and the two new projects are at Escalante and Richfield. Blanding received an additional $150,000 from the General Aviation Entitlement Program, so the revised project will include enlarging the apron, along with doing the tea-cup turnarounds, the apron repair, and the geological study. Heber City received an additional $190,000 from the General Aviation Apportionment Program, so the project has been increased to include acquiring land for approaches, as well as fencing and designing a taxilane.

Escalante received $150,000 from the General Aviation Entitlement Program, so a new project was recommended. This project will include design and grade of runway safety areas, the addition of drainage culverts, and removing some obstructions by trimming or removing trees and cutting down a small hill. Richfield will have a new state project to do some maintenance work on the asphalt, construct a new water line and fire hydrants, construct new security lights, and to rehabilitate the helicopter pad. This will involve an additional $108,000 of state money.

Commissioner Warnick moved to approve the Aeronautics projects presented. It was seconded by Commission Wilson and approved.

ResolutionJurisdictional Transfer of SR-308John Quick from Program Development explained that this resolution is a follow up of a request by Kane County to transfer SR-308 to their jurisdiction. There is a letter from the chairman of the Kane County Commission and a letter of support from Region Director Dal Hawks in the Commissionís binders. SR-308 provides access to the Kodachrome State Park, and there is a county road that also provides access to the park. Now both roads will be eligible for State Park Access Road Funds. There was additional discussion regarding the jurisdictional transfer of other State Park access roads.

Commissioner Lewis made a motion to approve the resolution to transfer the jurisdiction of SR-308 to Kane County. It was seconded by Commissioner Wilson and approved.

Request for use of Corridor Preservation FundsLyle McMillan reported that the Advisory Council met two weeks ago and considered six applications for use of corridor preservation funds. Four requests are before the Commission today, the other two requests were tabled. First is the Brad R. Cottrell property on US-89. Back in January, the Advisory Council reviewed the Cottrells application but felt it didnít rise to the level of a hardship. However, since then, a second letter was received indicating their desire and urgency, which was greater than the council previously thought. UDOT already owns one of the three homes in that area slated for demolition when the US-89 project happens. The amount requested for approval is $210,000.

Commissioner Wells moved to approve the purchase of the Cottrell property. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lewis and approved.

Mr. McMillan said the next request is for the Nick and Rose Rees property on US-89. The Rees family applied for acquisition in 1998, but was denied due to lack of funding. They subsequently moved to Salt Lake City in 1999, and have been renting the home on US-89. However, they have been renting at a loss, and have lost nearly $25,000, in terms of the difference from what they are receiving in rent and what they are paying out in mortgage payments. The property is estimated at $150,000, and is a full acre. The advisory council recommends approval.

Commissioner Warnick made a motion to approve the Nick and Rose Rees property. It was seconded by Commissioner Wells and approved.

The third request is from Mr. and Mrs. David S. Astle for their property on the Western Transportation Corridor. The property owner lost his position in Utah, but found another position in California and has since moved there, leaving his wife and kids in Utah to see about getting UDOT to purchase the home. The wife also has some medical ailments that led them to look for work outside of the state because of the climate. The amount of request for this is $152,000. There is another home in the area that has been purchased, as well as several nearby empty lots to prevent homes from being built on them in anticipation of building the corridor.

Commissioner Warnick made a motion to purchase the Astle property. It was seconded by Commissioner Bodily and approved.

The final request is for the Lee Lippert property on Redwood Road at about 10600 South. The reason for the request is that two families are being blended together and they have moved to another home in Layton. The father is a member of the reserves and has been called up for active duty. They attempted to sell and had a buyer, but the buyer backed out due to the project scheduled in the next three to seven years. There are issues with access once the project happens. The property is estimated at $117,000, and the Advisory Council recommends approval. Commissioner Wells noted that this is an historic property, and with the location of this property, it is also prime commercial property.

Commissioner Wells moved to approve the purchase of the Lee Lippert property. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Warnick and approved.

Accomplishments/Conditions and Needs Reports

AeronauticsPat Morley, Director of Aeronautics, reported that for the past couple of years, there have been some tremendous improvements at the airports. He receives phone calls on a regular basis from airport operators, users and sponsors expressing their appreciation to the State Division of Aeronautics, as well as the FAA, for the support they have been receiving. But as the highway program is having a reduction in revenue from fuel tax, the Aeronautics Restricted Account is also suffering a slight reduction as a result of airline flights being reduced.

Mr. Morley noted that the effort to have a control tower constructed at the Provo Airport has moved one step closer, as $800,000 has been earmarked by Congress for the construction of the tower. Here in St. George, the new regional airport continues to be a concern. Environmental issues have forced the FAA to go back to point zero and start a full EIS from the very beginning, which will be a setback of at least 2 Ĺ years. At the Salt Lake International Airport, the national airspace restructuring is of vital concern, which is part of a nationwide restructuring program. However, the implications to Salt Lake are rather significant. Mr. Morley said he would be happy to discuss specific details with any of the Commissioners if they are interested. Additional discussion ensued regarding airport operations around the state.

Pavement ManagementLloyd Neeley from Program Development presented a report on the Departmentís accomplishments and the condition of Utahís state road pavements. In regards to the accomplishments, the amount for projects completed in 2001 totaled $217,700,000. Of that amount, a total of $29,700,000 was spent on rehabilitation projects. In 2002, a total of $215,000,000 was spent, with $44,600,000 being spent on rehabilitation. There have been five completed projects in 2003, for a total of $25,200,000. There are three categories that make up the pavement portion of the program: preventative maintenance, minor rehabilitation, and reconstruction, and Mr. Neeley reviewed projects from each of those categories.

For the overall condition of pavements, UDOT has developed a statement of long term goals for the transportation system in Utah. This statement stated the purpose of the Department as a government agency, outlined major focus areas, and stated long term goals in four specific program areas. One of those areas was the condition of roads. That stated goal was that ďthe percentage of road mileage in ďfairĒ condition or better in terms of ride quality will be 90% or higher for interstate highways, 70% or higher for arterial roads, and 50% or higher for collector roads.Ē Ride quality is what the customer feels, and poor ride quality compounds other distresses, increases user costs, and increases agency costs. Mr. Neeley reviewed examples of roads that were in very good condition, good condition, fair condition, poor condition, and very poor condition. He also compared statistics of 2001's ride quality versus 2002's ride quality, as well as comparisons by region, and comparisons of the total state system from 1991 to 2002.

Mr. Neeley then reviewed their analysis of the needs of the pavement management system. In regards to pavement age as of 2003, he said many roads are coming to the end of their life expectancy, as a significant portion of the road milage is over 40 years old. More attention will need to be paid in the future to higher end rehabilitation and reconstruction projects. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to fully fund the preventive maintenance program. That same attention also needs to be applied to the rehabilitation and reconstruction program. In order to preserve a network of healthy pavement, a comprehensive strategy composed of several pieces must be in place: reactive maintenance, minor rehabilitation, major rehabilitation, and reconstruction. A combined amount of about $150 million should be spent each year for major and minor rehabilitation and for pavement-driven reconstruction projects. Of that amount, about $70 million should be for minor rehabilitation. For fiscal year 2004, the projected need for preventive maintenance is $50 million.

Rest Areas and SidewalksJohn Quick said there is a renewed emphasis for the Rest Area Program, but the question is are rest areas part of the highway system or an accessory? The area system include needs for safety, needs for additional benefits, and needs for financial feasibility. Rest areas help reduce driver fatigue, helps reduce shoulder stops (3% of all accidents involved vehicles parked on the shoulder), are a safe refuge from weather, and helps reduce driver distractions. Additional benefits of the rest area system include providing comfort and convenience of the motoring public, enhancing environmental and cultural conditions, and increasing the image of the state.

UDOT has several strategic goals for their rest areas. One is to take care of what they have by contracting for routine maintenance and having a preservation program for existing sites. Also, making the system work better including incorporation of private/public partnerships and making modifications to the existing system. Other strategic goals include improving safety and increasing capacity.

Mr. Quick reviewed the status of accomplishments and said that seven new rest area sites have been built since 1994. Results from a taskforce that was formed include the establishment of the goals and objectives of the program; support for continued development of public/private partnerships; starting a PR campaign to inform the public; deciding that view areas can fit into the system and that the existing prototype design is good (with adjustments); and developing a needs assessment and preservation program. The task force is working on developing a revised priority list of about 15 sites. The top three sites are Ghost Rocks, Echo (eastbound), and the Brigham City Welcome Center. The final recommendations will come from the taskforce.

Mr. Quick briefly reviewed the State Sidewalk Program and said there was $500,000 allocated by the State for the FY2004 program. Funds are allocated to each county based on a formula. The formula includes 25% based on population, 25% based on school enrollment, and 50% based on pedestrian accidents.

Informational ItemsThe next Transportation Commission meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 18, 2003, at the UDOT Rampton Complex, 4501 South 2700 West, Salt Lake City, Utah. The following dates and locations have also been scheduled:

May 23, 2003 - Brigham City

June 2003 - No meeting to be scheduled

July 18, 2003 - Location TBD

The meeting adjourned at 12:07 p.m.

The following Commissioners, staff members and others were in attendance: